Chapter 28

He breathes through clenched teeth as he sees the man leaving his bag inside the back of the car, taking his hat out to run a distracted hand through his hair before putting it on again.

It's difficult to tell with the little light around but he's pretty sure it's green hair what he sees. He should be glad the other guy is too distracted to notice his lack of subtlety as he inspects him. He can't really tell the color of his eyes, but that expression and those glasses are way too familiar for him to ignore. He isn't wearing a lab coat and has a faint stubble that doesn't quite hide the sharpness of his jaw, which is unlike the chubbiness he remembers. Still. He's pretty sure the man in front of him is Verde, the Lightning Arcobaleno.

"Damn it," he mumbles in Japanese. The man he's sure is Verde tilts his head towards his direction before deciding to ignore him again, which is not good.

He clears his throat around what he hopes is a nice smile. "Excuse me, you seem to be a man who is their own boss. I hope I'm not being too, uh—"

Verde pulls out a paper from the pocket of his coat and shoves it in his direction with a roll of his eyes, annoyed and completely bored for having to do it. "I'm allowed to take the body. I'm a scientist."

Not what he thought he would hear, but—"No, no. I was just wondering if you would like to employ me. I'm looking for a job, you see." The flap of the paper stops and Verde gives him a look as he fidgets. He swallows and adds, "I love science?"

Tsuna doesn't even believe it, of course, Verde won't either.

"I don't have time for this," he says, already turning around. Which, no. He can't let it happen. He tries to think of all he knows about the man to find something that would persuade him to at least interact but comes with nothing. He doesn't know him well and has barely interacted with him, Tsuna doesn't think he has anything that can—

"Wait!"

He grabs the door so the other can't close it while fumbling with his other to search inside his pockets. Verde looks more than annoyed now. His grip around the door's handle is tightening, clearly preparing to close it even if he has to take a couple of his fingers with the action. Before that can happen though, Tsuna is shoving his Vongola phone to his face.

Leaning back, Verde adjusts his glasses to get a better view of the phone. His curiosity is clear even as confused as he seems to be as he inspects the object in front of him. He obviously doesn't know what it is so without more prompting, Tsuna presses the only unmistakable bottom on the screen and with that, the phone comes alive.

Verde doesn't show any indication he's startled, he merely leans forward with wide curious eyes. The screen is locked so only numbers can be seen, the second security interface it has. The first being on the home button, which will only let the screen shows if it's one of his fingers pressing it. Verde has probably understood the function of the numbers at first glance, but he still touches the screen with his pinky, on top of the number '8', watching with fascination how the number he pressed appears on top. He continues pressing more numbers, alternating from the middle, where the number is, to the edge, experimenting.

After seeing what happens when the correct order is not pressed, he looks up at him.

"Er. It's a phone?"

Giving it one last glance, Verde takes the phone from his hands. Before Tsuna can do anything more than squeak in protest, he's being shoved his phone, in the same way, he's previously done. "What's the right sequence?"

"Oh. Right." Making sure the other can't see it, Tsuna does as he's been asked to before returning the phone back to Verde. The man hums for a while as inspects the phone, turning one way and then another. Looking at every button, hole, and scratch on it while writing stuff he can't understand on the notebook he took out from who-knows-where.

The wind starts blowing with more strength and Tsuna is suddenly very aware of how he's leaning slightly inside the open door of a car with a dead body on the backseat, on a shady street with no other cars around.

He really doesn't want to interrupt whatever thing Verde is doing, but he's cold and hungry. "Er. Won't that body go bad if it stays there?"

Verde looks distractedly from where he's writing what looks like math to the backseat as if only remembering what he has on his car. He makes a thoughtful sound before finishing writing a line of numbers. He then moves with surprising grace to the passenger seat and pulls out some keys from a pocket before throwing them in his direction, his intention clear.

"Huh," he mumbles, hands cradling the keys.

Tsuna doesn't point out his age or his lack of license, something tells him the other man will win whatever argument he gives, so with a sigh, he takes the keys and sits on the driver seat. He makes sure to attach Verde's seat belt first, as he seems too distracted to do it, before doing the same with his own. He checks all mirrors and with a prayer that hopes driving a car is not that difficult from driving a motorcycle, he turns it on and—

He looks at Verde. "Where are we going?"

"I'll guide you to our destination."

Can you? He wants to ask but is smart enough to not do it. Verde doesn't seem like the type of person who likes to be doubted about what he can or can't do. So with a sigh and a slight tremble in his hand, Tsuna starts driving.

Twenty minutes later and with way too many close calls, they finally reach their destination. Tsuna is pretty sure Verde has made him go into several circles just to confuse him and will probably get lost if he tries to go back on his own (The lack of light hindered his ability to read the street's names and more). He's pretty sure Verde would have made it even more difficult if he didn't have the dead body on the backseat, but at least he's learned a couple of things about him thanks to the trip.

First, Verde can completely immerse himself in something he's studying to the point he doesn't notice they're about to crash or have broken at least ten driving laws.

Second, Verde has a GPS in his head. He doesn't even need to look up, he always knows where he is. And the time, too.

Third, Verde has selective hearing. His brain seems to filter small talk but lets him known when something important is mentioned. It's creepy.

Finally, and this is something he would've never associated with the scientist he remembers, Verde likes to clap when something really interesting happens and coo at the thing like it's a baby, which is a thing that happened when he discovered his phone could take photos. He's been mumbling something about light and colors and fascinating for the last five minutes.

"We're here," he says dryly. Redundant considering they've been waiting inside the car for one minute and unless this is another trick and the house he can see in front of them is not Verde's then he thinks he may end throttling him. He's annoyed, tired, and hungry. He really needs something to go easy for a change.

"The body's still on the back."

Tsuna wants to say 'well yeah. You put it there' but chooses to look blankly at him. His head then turns to the back where the body is getting colder and tenser before raising an eyebrow.

The other is of course not looking at him and the gestures he does. "Weren't you the one who wanted a job? Move, go on."

"Wait, wha—are you serious?"

Pulling the seat belt out, he opens the door of the car and skips outside, taking his keys with him. "Be quick, assistant."

Tsuna doesn't need to be told twice. After a small battle with his own seat belt, he goes to the back and starts carrying the body, making sure to not breathe through his nose. It's harder with only one person doing the job but despite his willowy frame, Tsuna is stronger than he looks. Soon he's walking through the gates. He doesn't have time to examine the small storage rooms to the side or the large garden that would be called empty if not for the spots filled with weird bushes in certain specific spots.

His Intuition cautions him of not touching anything, which he wasn't planning to do and to stay away from certain ones. It makes him uneasy, especially when the path leading to the house is thinner than it should be.

"Put him here!" he hears as soon as he enters, coming from downstairs. It takes him a while to reach the stairs but in that time he's been ogling around as is not often one sees a huge living room, furniture of tastefully designs but clearly not that used. The kitchen is also big and probably the size of his own living room but seems even more desolate than the living room. There are a couple of other rooms but they're closed so Tsuna doesn't dwell on them. He has a body to give, after all.

Adjusting the arm around his shoulders, Tsuna steps down the stairs. The closest room is the only one with the lights on and sounds of movement coming from it, so he goes there.

And then wishes he hadn't because while Tsuna has grown used to a lot of weird things, only improved by his first months in Italy, and he can shrug off most disgusting smells and sights, he still draws the line to body parts. Especially body parts not attached to their bodies.

He may not have thought this through as he should have.

"It needs the password again," Verde murmurs from somewhere near his left before pressing the right set of numbers (of course he knows them with only watching him put them once) and realizing the phone still needs Tsuna to do more for it to activate. So he motions him to come forward and Tsuna has to walk around a large glass jar with what he's sure is an arm inside it to see the door he's missed in his horrified surprise where he's leaning on, the phone still in his hands but now clearly with the screen turned off.

"Where do I put the, uh… guy?"

With a wave, Verde motions him to go inside. Tsuna kind of doesn't want to go because horror movies have taught him to not follow the mad scientist ever. His Intuition is also silent so he has to decide on the fly and hope for the best. The view he now has is not reassuring either.

"… Is that an arm inside a jar?"

Who he's now totally convinced is Verde doesn't look up from where he's turning on some weird, huge machine thing. It looks like a cut soda can toppled on the ground with those weird rings around where he thinks the body must be placed. Tsuna looks at Verde but he only gets a phone shoved very close to his face.

With a hand inserting the right code and the other trying to not let the body fall, Tsuna realizes that his life will always be like this. There's no reason to be upset.

He still looks away and blinks the tears that want to fall until the body is on the weird machine and Tsuna can easily move.

"Can I take a shower?"

Verde nods and with his eyes still locked on the phone he somehow turns on the machine and he pulls out some notebooks at the same time. "First floor, second door to your right."

Taking a deep breath of air, Tsuna tries to subtly center himself with the help of the flames that subconsciously leak through Verde's form. They're weirdly active and not so surprisingly strong. They're solid and comforting in their strength.

"If you're going to cry do it while bathing. I've not yet studied Japanese so your next job will be traducing all I tell you about."

Tsuna doesn't slump his shoulders or looks down, his Intuition tells him that will close off whatever bond he needs to form with Verde. He holds his head high and looks right at him. "You can call me Ozora, by the way."

Verde's eyes momentarily flick to his face. "Dmitr."

It must be his real name, he thinks.

"Should I call you Boss?"

He tries to ignore the way his Intuition shouts a big 'NO', a continues smiling.

"I don't care. Weren't you going to shower? Do it quickly. I'll need you soon."

"Ok, then. I'll call you Verde."

He doesn't receive more than a roll of eyes.

"Creative," he says with clear sarcasm but there isn't any real emotion in the tone. It makes him nervous, especially now that he's aware that he has to form some kind of friendship or bond with him, unlike the other times he met the future Arcobaleno.

As he goes to the room Verde indicated, he hopes he doesn't have to force anything. He hopes he can form an honest friendship with all the rest of the Arcobaleno he has yet to meet.

That seems to be how his life seems to be full of, just hopes and stressful decisions with his Intuition as his puppet master.